Also noticed my potato plants are suddenly covered with aphids, seems like I need more ladybirds/bugs around to help - anyone tried to attract them into the garden? I read something that suggested to mix up some sugar and yeast with water and spread that around...I'm giving it a go, but not massively optimistic that it's going to work.

i always just leave the aphids alone, they love my collards, but they don't seem to affect their growth at all. i'd be afraid of what i might attract with the sugar-- ants?

the moth is beautiful. i just finally put in plants yesterday and decided to try tomatoes despite the insect destruction that happens every year. had a nice talk with the guy at the organic plant place and he told me that neem on its own should be diluted 1:1000 (whoops) and is better used along with other stuff. he recommended some spray that i will try this year [even though everything there is "organic" organic is basically a free-for-all here and totally unreliable, so i've resisted using and pesticides at all]

In the bush next to our garden we saw about a dozen of these guys all over. I had never looked closely and thought they were bees or wasps with a few hummingbirds mixed in before based on the buzzing but apparently they're hummingbird moths? Very interesting but also very alien looking

_________________Technically, we're all half-centaur - Nick Offerman

Imma let you finish, but the Paranthropus Boisei were the greatest vegans ever.

Ugh I saw all these cave paintings complaining about vegan cheese options. I don't miss those days. -Isa

I have a question about wasps. We've got a barn with a second story that they like to build nests in. I'm not going to remove them this year but over the winter when they depart I would like to remove all the old nests and find a way to keep them from building new ones next year. Is there anything I can do to make it a less attractive space for them?

_________________Technically, we're all half-centaur - Nick Offerman

Imma let you finish, but the Paranthropus Boisei were the greatest vegans ever.

Ugh I saw all these cave paintings complaining about vegan cheese options. I don't miss those days. -Isa

Unfortunately it's a drafty old stable, so I don't think there's any way I'm going to be able to prevent them from having access. As far as I can tell they have come year after year, there are a bunch of old hives about the size of a baseball scattered around the building.

_________________Technically, we're all half-centaur - Nick Offerman

Imma let you finish, but the Paranthropus Boisei were the greatest vegans ever.

Ugh I saw all these cave paintings complaining about vegan cheese options. I don't miss those days. -Isa

Not a garden issue butttttt - I need help! Or front porch has our mail box, just a lil covered thing that holds the mail. Our porch is a constant bug hang out - though we clean and clean. When we go pull out our mail we often find squished bugs on our bills and stuff...Ick. What to do???

Recent beautiful but completely deadly caterpillar. The size of a hot dog, not counting the spines. Scared the hell out of me.Sleepy and calm

and armed and ready to fire

today, i found a gaggle of grasshoppers outside, boinging along happily. We were surprised to find that they had all congregated in a corner and were in variou stages of molting. They go from black-leather-red-stripes to big brown with stripey legs and bright orange wings. It's amazing to watch them molt. They will probably eat my whole garden but that's OK.pardon bad focusThe biggest is about 3 inches or so long.

the grasshoppers were hiding behind my washing machine and scared the crepe out of me. they move in this big fleet, it is so awesome to watch. i am SOOOO tempted to make them go to the [evil, throws-trash-in-my-yard] nextdoor neighbor's yard, but i am sure she'd hurt them so i won't. i suspect the hoppers are planning and plotting something.

Hey everyone! It's been a while since I've visited. A week ago I was really happy, my jalapeno plant was looking fantastic and had half a dozen chillis on it. 3 of my 4 habanero plants also looked good and had 2 dozen chillis on them. Then I spotted a dozen yellow lady beetles on them and was like YAY!

Today, the leaves of the jalapeno plant look like this

And the beetles seem to be eating the chillis :/

They've munch on all the jalapenos but only one habanero had a hole in it so I've picked all of them, apart from a few of the worst jalapenos.

I picked 21 habanero chillis, I've just stuck them in the freezer.

I always thought lady beetles just ate bad bugs and mould, and I don't really want to get rid of them but they're ruining all the new baby chillis :/

I think the damage is being caused by a different insect. I'm not sure what kind of pests you have in your part of the world, but I would look on the underside of the leaves and the base of the plant. Looking early in the morning might help, too, if it's something that feeds at night. The insects are often almost the same color as the leaves. Most likely, the ladybugs are attracted by the waste the other bugs are leaving behind.

from the leaves, it looks like leaf miners, not the ladybugs. if you look on the underside of the leaf, you should see the eggs. they're *really* tiny.you can get rid of the bugs by either picking off the eggs, which is a huge pain in the asparagus, or using neem oil.

_________________I'm one of those vegans that cuts corners when it comes to things like breastfeeding and stabbing you in the face~PranjalThat story would be adorable if it didn't end with herpes. ~Mo

I was taking really good care of my roses. I saw a few Japanese beetles and picked them out, thinking that it would not be bad. Overnight the beetles swarmed in eating a lot of my roses. :/

I am trying to cut out all the bad ones, spray down my plants with soapy water...I have been using the petals in small vintage plates throughout the house and bringing rose buds to my sister at the cemetery...I will save them!

Mealy bugs have invaded my beans. This is my first foray into vegetable gardening and I am crushed. I had lots of lovely beans just about ready to be picked...now there are only 3 good ones :( I have read they are very difficult to get rid of because the babies hide in the nooks and crannies of the plants. I am going to try a detergent/oil mix and see if that does anything.

Aphids - for something like dill, your best bet might be to cover the beds with Reemay in the future. Also - aphids are especially attracted to lush, new growth - so be careful not to over-fertilize with too much nitrogen. Slower growing plants, as long as they are healthy, are less susceptible, and most herbs taste better with less nitrogen anyway. You can also try to blast most of them off with hard sprays of water, but dill leaves might not like that either.

_________________Formerly Kaleicious. I still love kale, but no more than lots of other garden greens too! Orach is currently my favorite.

Where can one get ladybugs? Will they not just...fly away? Full disclosure, all of my herbs and things are in pots on a third floor balcony, and I'm too lazy to fertilize beyond whatever was in the potting soil, so I was hoping there was maybe a safe to use spray or something. It's weird, they're ONLY on the dill, which is shoved right up next to all of my other plants. This happened the last time I grew dill, too, even though it was indoors. Perhaps a trip to Southern States to look for non toxic aphid killing things is in order.

_________________But if one were to tickle Pluto, I suspect that it might very quietly laugh. - pandacookie

55k usd is like 4 cad or whatever equivalent in beavers you use on the island - joshua

If the pot isn't too big, just take it to your kitchen sink and rinse as many off as you can. Neem oil in a spray would probably kill them, but with foliage as delicate as dill it might damage the foliage too.

_________________Formerly Kaleicious. I still love kale, but no more than lots of other garden greens too! Orach is currently my favorite.